The Groundbreaking New Book

Have you written the most groundbreaking new book on the market?

Me too!  We have so much in common.  

My first published novel, The Human Template, is now available at all major online retailers!

I'm celebrating with a Zoom launch this afternoon, where I get to thank my wonderful beta readers and friends and family and new fans and anybody else who wants to stop by. 

The worst thing I could do now is simply forget about it and redirect all my energies somewhere else. Every snowball begins as a collection of snowflakes. They just need to find each other. It's my responsibility to get that ball rolling!

I will be working hard to get the sequel, The Carnivorous Forest, out on schedule (by next summer), without losing focus on the immediate goal of turning as many readers as possible onto The Human Template.

I can't get discouraged by tepid early sales - because that has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the book. I need to encourage everyone who has read and enjoyed it to leave reviews. I have managed to get the book in the hands of a couple top reviewers in the hope that one or two of them will love it. But there's still so much to be done. I need to keep pushing onward to find new reviewers and new readers - and hopefully get them as excited to read The Carnivorous Forest as I am to complete it and release it.

I have learned so many lessons so far. Perhaps the main one is that I need to know when to declare a project complete. It's too easy to fiddle until the cows come home without making many (or any) qualitative improvements. Certainly, some of that nitpicking work is valuable - like actually catching and fixing mistakes. But most of it is a waste of time. I can rewrite the opening pages a hundred times, and each time it will be different - but it won't necessarily be better. As many readers will miss the old version as love the new stuff. There's only one way to make it better - and that's to find something that works - that satisfies the needs of the story in terms of plot and character development -  and then use my unique (albeit still developing) voice to expand on it, tighten it, and ensure that it accomplishes all my goals at the same time. If I can walk away feeling like I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, then I know for a fact that I'm on the right track. 

It takes a lot to make people happy, and generally takes very little to turn them off.  So I'm content to please some of the people some of the time - as long as I can give them enough pleasure. And the only way to be confident about doing that is to ensure that the end product genuinely excites me. 

I'm happy as long as I can put the book out there believing:

• Its the best I can do.
• It's as good as or better than many books out there by writers I admire. I set the bar as high as I think I can reach and I cleared it. 
• It may one day make me a few bucks so I don't have to scheme to come up with free outlets to plug in my computer.

In fact, as long as it does those things, I am deliriously happy and very excited about every new reader who picks up the book and gives it a chance to surprise and entertain them. You might not like it. I've had readers tell me that the front end is great but the rest of the book is unreadable. I've had others tell me the front end is a slog but then the book opens up like a flower and bestows all sorts of  great characters and ideas and excitement on the reader. Some have told me that they gobbled the whole book up within hours and are dying to read the next book, while others gave up after days or weeks of trying to get into it. Some think it has nothing new to say, while others think it's groundbreaking.

I hope you give it a look, just in case you might me in that group that thinks it's groundbreaking.

In my experience, there's nothing like discovering a groundbreaking new book. I'd like to do that for you. And point me at your book, please!  We have to start taking chances on each other.

Please pick up a copy of The Human Template at any of these retailers. Watch for the POD and stand-by for special editions once book two has been released. I promise, this is just the beginning.